Gus Kenworthy On His First Sexual Experience With A Guy: “I Kinda Just Thought ‘I’m Gonna Kiss Him'”

"I knew I had this pull, and obviously that got more frequent and stronger as I got older," says the out Olympian
From: NewNowNext

 Whether your an Olympic athlete or a couch potato, we all have our first time.

In an interview with Attitude magazine, newly out free skier Gus Kenworthy recalls the first time he got intimate with another man, who became his first boyfriend.

I had no idea he was gay or interested at all. We just became friends, and one night we’d been out to the bars and had a few drinks, and we staying at a friend’s and sharing a pull-out couch. And I kinda just thought ’I’m gonna kiss him, and if he punches me in the face I can play it off as having one too many to drinks or just being an idiot.’

But it ended up being reciprocated and it started a five-year relationship.

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A photo posted by gus kenworthy (@guskenworthy) on Oct 28, 2015 at 1:51pm PDT

Like many gay people, Kenworthy says his realization about his sexual orientation didn’t come all at once. He says he knew he was different at an early age, that there was an attraction. Even if he didn’t know exactly what it meant.

I remember going with my family to these hot springs when I was a kid and there was a lifeguard there who was probably in his 20s, who was really fit and had, like, big arms and shoulders, which I hadn’t really seen before I guess—not in a swimsuit! And I was just like ‘Oh my god, what is happening!’ [chuckles] But I didn’t know whether I was so drawn to it because I wanted to look like that or to have that to myself.

But I knew I had this pull, and obviously that got more frequent and stronger as I got older.

As a teen, he’d find himself drawn to the male leads in romantic films—though he knew he wasn’t “supposed” to.

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A photo posted by gus kenworthy (@guskenworthy) on Aug 13, 2014 at 12:59pm PDT

“So I kept quiet about it,” he tells the magazine. “I think it was at 16 that I really realize ’this is what I am,’ but that’s also the age I went pro and started travelling a lot, so it was a hard time to accept it.”

He regrets being pressured into hooking up with women to keep up with his fellow skiers.

“There’s this emphasis on who’s going to sleep with the most girls… and I panicked and I ended up doing so many things I didn’t want to do,” he recalls. “I know if a straight guy tried to picture sleeping with another guy just to try and fit in, they’d be like “I’d never do that.” But it’s so difficult.

Thankfully Kenworthy has been able to put that shame behind him and find someone he’s genuinely attracted to.